Former Addyston police chief pleads guilty in machine gun scheme
The former Addyston police chief pleaded guilty to charges in federal court Monday stemming from a scheme to illegally acquire and resell 200 machine guns, officials said.
Dorian LaCourse, 66, of Milford faces up to 15 years in prison for conspiracy and for making false statements to the ATF and on federal firearms license records.
Working with two federally licensed firearm dealers in Indiana, LaCourse used his position as police chief to import fully automatic machine guns under the guise that the weapons would be demonstrated to his department for possible purchase, prosecutors said.
Read: More about the case against LeCourse and the 'hundreds of machine guns' he helped get
But the reality was much different. Prosecutors said the weapons were never demonstrated to the department and were resold by the Indiana dealers for a significant profit, as much as six times the purchase price.
"LaCourse was the village's only full-time police officer," a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana said. "LaCourse received over $11,500 from the gun dealers for his role in the scheme."
Police departments are allowed to import and buy new fully automatic weapons, but prosecutors said Addyston never paid for them and the gun dealers funded the purchases.
The Enquirer acquired documents related to LaCourse's suspension from the city of Addyston after LaCourse was suspended from his position as chief. He would later resign.
The man said he wanted to double-check that LaCourse was indeed intending to buy the weapons requested by the gun dealers, "some of which are belt-fed (and) currently in use by the U.S. Armed Forces – not a typical firearm used by police departments."
"My concern for the moment is that there has been a request for 64 machine guns for demonstration over the past year which is a rather large amount," the email said. "I am assuming that you would likely know if the PD has spent $200,000 or more on machine gun purchases for demonstration over the past year."
One of the weapons in question was an M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun, which prosecutors said is "a vehicle- or ship-mounted weapon that is effective against lightly armored vehicles and low-flying aircraft."
The two gun dealers, Johnathan Marcum of Laurel and Christopher Petty of Lawrenceburg, have both pleaded guilty in the scheme and face up to five years in prison.
None of the men have been sentenced.
LaCourse's lawyer declined to comment on Monday's guilty plea.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Former Addyston police chief pleads guilty in machine gun scheme
